We come to you tonight, live, from a room at the Navy Lodge on Historic Ford Island in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. (Tape delay on the west coast).

We don't actually check out of Navy housing until tomorrow but we finished cleaning and packing and are really tired of that itty-bitty mattress the loan closet gave us. I decided on the way home from work today that we were going to check into the hotel a day early. Fortune smiled on me when I learned they had one more room remaining. Tamara, of course, had no idea what I was doing. She was home working hard to get everything finished. She did a hell of a job at it, too. About all they'll need to do is throw up a coat of paint and fix the bathtub (it's peeling, again) and the unit will be ready for someone to move in. When she learned we were checking in a day early it made her whole day.

When I walked in the room one of the first things I noticed was a broadband modem stapled to the wall with its little green lights all a'flicker. Power on, shields up, CAT-V cable plugged in and "whoop!" there's an IP address all ready to be used. At a little more than 400k/sec download speed it ain't no cable modem but it beats to hell the 56k dial-up I had to use in the Bachelor Officer's Quarters in Sandy Eggo four years ago.

So here we sit in a hotel room. Our house is full of stuff but it isn't our stuff. It isn't really our home anymore. For all intents and purposes we have no home anymore. Yah, we've got places to stay... We're not destitute, but it is really a strange feeling to not know where will be your next home. This is unlike any PCS transfer I've done. At least then we had an idea of the area where we'd be living. At this point we don't really know. We have our preconceived ideas and preferences but we are keeping our options open. Part of taking this motorcycle trip (Which has, once again, changed drastically most recently. More on this in a later update) is to have a look around at the places we haven't been yet. Who knows? Maybe we'll find something better than what we already have in mind...

Tomorrow we check out of housing and turn in the paperwork to start our housing allowances. Thursday is our final appointment with the Personnel "Support" Detachment and before we know it Friday will be here and I'll be retired.